this post was submitted on 03 Sep 2025
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BioShock! I somehow missed it years ago when it came out, so I've had nothing to go off of for all this time, and I was excited to finally have a chance to sit down with it recently after 15+ years of hearing people rave about how amazing and fun it is.
The artists involved were obviously very skilled, it's visually gorgeous even a decade and a half later, and the sound design is top notch. No complaints there, and if that's what the hype was all about, then it's well-deserved.
However, the plot was almost non-existent, leaving me wondering what the hell my character was motivated by for the vast majority of the first game. Then there were a couple "twists" that I saw coming a mile away near the very end of the game. It felt like watching a young adult fantasy show or something, I dunno.
I managed to finish the first game, feeling very disappointed, and figured the 2nd one might be better. I made it only a few hours into that before I lost interest in it entirely and have yet to drag myself back to finish it. The story was maybe slightly better in BioShock 2, but not by much and not enough to keep me going.
There are people I know who are obsessed with this game series, and I just do not get it, even after giving it more of a chance to hook me than I give to most games. The only thing I can think of is that maybe they played it initially when they were kids/teenagers, and nostalgia has carried them through the series to overlook how utterly dull it actually is. I'm not going to challenge people on it or anything, I'm glad people enjoy it, but I don't understand the why (aside from the art).
It really is just another sci-fi game. But that's okay.
I'm the first game, you play as Andrew Ryan's younger clone/son, who is apparently only like three years old by the time the game starts (accelerated aging I think), coming back to Rapture even though you have no memory of it. It's all weird and convoluted.
I think people like it for the whole spiel you hear in the recording on the way down: "'No,' says the man in the Vatican; 'it belongs to *God.' I chose Rapture." or something like that
People like for the spin of the fourth wall break when you find out that every objective in the game was a command for you the player brainwashed by the game. A man chooses, a slave obeys and you the player obeyed every time.
Sure, but there are other games that have worked with that gimmick before. Maybe not as directly, but still.
I'm reminded of Kreia from KoTOR 2, with all her bullshit about free will and chaos.
I've heard a lot of good things about KoTOR too, so it might have a similar appeal. I haven't played it myself though, so BioShock was my first (and only) time encountering something like this.
Damn. Try some more stuff
From the other side, I felt gameplay was very underwhelming for that game. Navigating it and fighting felt boring and repetitive. And I do like boring and repetitive games.
The Bioshock games are the most popular and least good of their spiritual franchise. Prey (2017) and System Shock 1 and 2 are all fantastic games. For story SS1 is my favorite, while Prey has the most developed gameplay (perhaps obviously given the release date). I still haven't played more than a couple hours of SS2, but it's a classic on the level of Deus Ex.
SS1 also has the distinction of being possibly the most influential game ever made. It's bonkers how many systems and ideas it was the first to explore or use. A very faithful remake came out recently, with one for SS2 under development.
(Edit: just saw that I somehow missed you mentioned this already, sorry! I'll leave my comment here, as a second opinion about it though!)
Yes! System Shock is one of my favorite games ever. If you get a chance, check out the recent remaster/remake of SS1, they did an excellent job with it: https://store.steampowered.com/app/482400/System_Shock/
Looks like they also released a remaster of SS2 a few months ago, I haven't played that yet, but I'm looking forward to seeing if they did as good a job as with the first one.